Canadian Film Weekly (Apr 17, 1957)

Page scan 0000 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Apr 17, 1957
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Apr 17, 1957)
Leaf #:
0000
Language:
English
Collection:
Global Cinema, Canada, and Hollywood Studio System
Format:
periodicals
Contributor:
Media History Digital Library, Greig Dymond in memory of David Dymond, Paul Moore and Jessica Whitehead
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:

Canadian Film Weekly

  • Editor: Hye Bossin (1942-64)
  • Renamed Canadian Film & TV Bi-Weekly (1965-69, editor: Stan Helleur)
  • Renamed Candian Film Weekly(1970, editor: Ed Hocura)

Canadian Film Weekly (1942-70) was edited by Hye Bossin and published by Film Publications of Canada, Ltd., wholly owned by leading exhibitor, Nat Taylor. In the late 1930s, Taylor was head of the Independent Theatre Association and his Toronto-based chain, Twinex-Century (Twentieth Century), was the largest independent circuit in the country. In 1941, however, he negotiated for chain affiliation with upstart Canadian Odeon before leveraging a better deal and greater booking control with nationally-dominant Famous Players Canada, Ltd. No longer independent, he took ownership of the Independent Theatre Association’s semi-monthly magazine, The Canadian Motion Picture Exhibitor (1940-41), installed Hye Bossin as editor, and laid plans to relaunch in January 1942 under a new name, Canadian Film Weekly. This enduring key publication was no longer solely focused on independent exhibitors but instead covered the entire industry on a national scale–exhibition, distribution and production–with some attention given to studio news from New York and Hollywood.

Bossin was a vibrant writer with a canny way with words, admired in the industry in the United States as well as Canada. He was one of a large family who lived above their father’s secondhand shop in the Jewish “ward” downtown in Toronto. His older brother was a bookie with ties to the underground; his younger brother was a famous journalist, protégé of Walter Winchell, and Hollywood screenwriter. In contrast, Hye spent nearly two decades learning the publishing trade in a printers’ shop before trying a stint as a Hollywood publicist, then writing a column for the Toronto Star Weekly before taking Taylor’s offer to edit the Film Weekly. Bossin was central to the creation of the Canadian Film Archive, the Canadian Film Awards, and he wrote some of the first histories of early cinema in Canada, published in the first volumes of the annual Canadian Film Weekly Year Book (1951-70).

In 1957, the Film Weekly had incorporated the rival Canadian Moving Picture Digest (1917-57), and began dating its start to that paper’s earlier start as the Canadian Universal Bulletin (1915-18). Subsequent variants of the Canadian Film Weekly and its yearbooks always claimed their roots all the way back to 1915 and the origins of the film industry trade press in Canada. After Bossin died in 1964, the Weekly’s new editor, Stan Helleur, renamed the magazine Canadian Film & TV Bi-Weekly, scaling back the pace of publishing but adding a purview for television and broadcasting. The annual was renamed similarly, its subtitle amended to “Year Book of the Canadian Entertainment Industry.” An attempted renewal to weekly format in 1970, edited by Ed Hocura, was short-lived and Nat Taylor decided instead to relaunch under an entirely new title, Canadian Film Digest (1971-77) and Canadian Film Digest Yearbook (1971-86).

– Paul Moore, March 2024

Further Reading

  • Bossin, Hye. “Canada and the Film: The Story of the Canadian Motion Picture Industry.” In Canadian Film Weekly Year Book of the Canadian Motion Picture Industry, 21-41. Toronto: Film Publications of Canada, 1951.
  • Moore, Paul. “Chronicling a National History: Hye Bossin’s Canadian Film Weekly and Year Book.” In Eric Hoyt and Kelley Conway, eds., Global Movie Magazines. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2024.

Date Added:
May 23, 2024
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| Ga [LAASS VOICE of the CANADIAN MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY . ie a VOL. 22, No. 15 A Incorporating the CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST (Founded 1915) Toronto, April 17, 1957 OX WILL RELEASE 55 IN NEXT YEAR 65-PICTURE PRODUCTION SKED DIRECT CHALLENGE TO TV Twentieth Century-Fox will have a total of 65 pictures in stock by March, 1958 and its releasing total between now and that time will be 55, Spyros P. Skouras, president, announced in New York recently. The production program, he emphasized, will MP Queries CBC Film Purchases A series of six questions, deposited recently with the Clerk of the House of Commons by W. G. Dinsdale, Progressive-Conservative member from _ Brandon-Souris, dealt with the purchase of films by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation TV from the National Film Board, (Continued on Page 4) Canada Foundat n Critics Roster Of 60 Canadian daily newspapers queried by The Canada Foundation of Ottawa to determine who writes the criticism of Music, Ari, Theatre, Books and Films, 49 names were returned in the latter field. Eleven of the papers did not name a film critic. Twenty-eight of the (Continued on Page 5) Alta. Censor Banned 4 Films, Ordered 112 Others Cut Four films were banned and deletions were ordered in 112 others by the Alberta Motion Picture Censor Branch during 1956, it was stated in the annual report by P. J. A. Fleming, chairman, which gave as almost 5,000 the number of new and_ second-print films reviewed by the board. The four films rejected on the grounds that they offended ‘traditional standards of morality and decency” were the two USA productions, Crime in the Streets and The Slave, the FrancoItalian feature, The Bed, and the French-made Sins of the Borgias. Cuts included 196 eliminations in 86 of 2,506 USA films examined, 50 in 17 of 259 British productions and 29 in nine of 42 German imports. None of the 12 Canadian films submitted for review during the year required editing, the board decided. Variety Charity Award To Tent 21, Atlanta Winner of the Charity Citation Award of Variety Clubs International for 1956 was Tent No. 21 of Atlanta, Georgia, which spent over $121,000 during the year on its three major projects— The Cerebral Palsy School-Clinic, Mountain View Camp and Bankhead Boys’ Club — and a number of minor ones. The name of the winning tent was delivered to Nathan D. Golden, Heart Committee chairman, in a sealed envelope by Charles A. Alicoate, executive publisher of The Film Daily, who acted as chairman of the judging committee. Golden made public the choice of the judges at the Humanitarian Award dinner for Dr. Albert Schweitzer, (Continued on Page 3) Cast In ‘Separate Tables’ Rita Hayworth has been signed to°star opposite Burt Lancaster in Hecht Hill Lancaster’s Separate Tables. VARIETY INTERNAT'L RE-ELECTS OFFICERS AT ANNUAL MEETING Okay Midnight Show In Toronto April 21 For the first time in Toronto permission has been granted theatres to run a pre-Easter Monday midnight show, commencing after 12 on Sunday night, April 21. Previously, pre-holiday midnight shows in Toronto had not been allowed Easter or Christmas. Successful representations for the extra show were made by Arch H. Jolley of the Motion Picture Theatres Association of Ontario to Magistrate F. W. Hall, chairman of the Metropolitan Licensing Commission. All incumbent officers of Variety Clubs International were returned by unanimous acclamation at the recent annual convention in New Orleans. Re-elected were John H. Rowley, Chief Barker; George W. Eby, First Assistant Chief Barker; represent the greatest expenditure in 20th-Fox history and the highest number of films to come from any company since 1940. The program represents a direct challenge to television and calls for daring. Skouras, who admits having had a hard time getting his fellow board members to okay a schedule that will cost well over the $50,000,000 laid out for last year’s, says he is gambling his professional reputation on_ it. Studios can only co-exist profitably with TV by turning out better en (Continued on Page 3) Oscar Derby Top Film Promotion Over 220 theatres in Ontario, along with some 30 daily and weekly newspapers, participated in the Ontario section of this year’s Academy Award Sweepstakes, to make it the most enterprising and most successful project for motion picture promotion in the history of the (Continued on Page 4) NB House Reopened Arthur Mitchell’s 250-seat Mayfair Theatre, the only one in Port Elgin, New Brunswick, which was badly damaged in a fire last November, has been rebuilt and reopened. It operates from four to six days weekly. ORR Toronto Civic Greetings for JARO's Kenneth More Britain’s top boxoffice draw and star of a number of J. Arthur Rank Organization films, Kenneth More managed to pay a one-day visit to Toronto during his week-long round of personal appearances in New York for the USA premiere of his most acclaimed film, Reach for the Sky. He is shown here after signing the guest book at the civic greeting in the office of Toronto’s Mayor. From the left are Kenneth Hargreaves, president of Rank Film Distributors of America, Inc., who accompanied More from New York; More; His Worship, Mayor Nathan Phillips, who welcomed him in behalf of the Queen City; and Frank H. Fisher, vice-president of Rank Film Distributors of Canada. Edward Emanuel, Second Assistant Chief Barker; Rotus Harvey, Property Master; J. B, Dumestre, Jr., Dough Guy; George C. Hoover, Executive Director. Next year’s convention will be held in London, England and the 1959 one in Las Vegas.